<text class="_textbox_1ucxj_15" direction="ltr" height="16.1159973144531" lengthadjust="spacingAndGlyphs" textlength="288.658363342285" x="97.6751937866211" y="-349.25" data-test="textbox">In a tightly constructed, subtly interlocked </text><text class="_textbox_1ucxj_15" direction="ltr" height="16.1329956054688" lengthadjust="spacingAndGlyphs" textlength="55.2193908691406" x="386.299774169922" y="-349.25" data-test="textbox">technique</text><text class="_textbox_1ucxj_15" direction="ltr" height="16.1159973144531" lengthadjust="spacingAndGlyphs" textlength="67.2962036132812" x="441.958068847656" y="-349.25" data-test="textbox">, designer </text><text class="_textbox_1ucxj_15" direction="ltr" height="15.9800109863281" lengthadjust="spacingAndGlyphs" textlength="79.5531768798828" x="78.9561004638672" y="-333.25" data-test="textbox">R&oacute;is&iacute;n Pierce&nbsp;</text><text class="_textbox_1ucxj_15" direction="ltr" height="16.1159973144531" lengthadjust="spacingAndGlyphs" textlength="134.9375" x="158.390594482422" y="-333.25" data-test="textbox">expertly weaves an </text><text class="_textbox_1ucxj_15" direction="ltr" height="15.5719909667969" lengthadjust="spacingAndGlyphs" textlength="75.2267150878906" x="293.395843505859" y="-333.25" data-test="textbox">examination&nbsp;</text><text class="_textbox_1ucxj_15" direction="ltr" height="16.1329956054688" lengthadjust="spacingAndGlyphs" textlength="158.101684570312" x="368.997375488281" y="-333.25" data-test="textbox">of Irish women&rsquo;s rights </text><text class="_textbox_1ucxj_15" direction="ltr" height="16.1329956054688" lengthadjust="spacingAndGlyphs" textlength="135.663391113281" x="176.149597167969" y="-317.25" data-test="textbox">with a reverence for </text><text class="_textbox_1ucxj_15" direction="ltr" height="16.1329956054688" lengthadjust="spacingAndGlyphs" textlength="48.8375854492188" x="311.438903808594" y="-317.25" data-test="textbox">heritage&nbsp;</text><text class="_textbox_1ucxj_15" direction="ltr" height="16.1159973144531" lengthadjust="spacingAndGlyphs" textlength="33.7619934082031" x="360.158294677734" y="-317.25" data-test="textbox">and </text><text class="_textbox_1ucxj_15" direction="ltr" height="16.1329956054688" lengthadjust="spacingAndGlyphs" textlength="29.3709106445312" x="393.992980957031" y="-317.25" data-test="textbox">craft.</text>

It&rsquo;s 4 p.m. in Dublin and R&oacute;is&iacute;n Pierce has a migraine. Yet, the&nbsp;25-year-old <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/summer-2022-fashion-trends-texture-color-shape" target="_blank" rel="noopener">designer</a> pops onto the Zoom screen smiling, her&nbsp;dark red hair framing her face against an all-white backdrop.&nbsp;She&rsquo;s signing on from her &ldquo;kitchen-y&rdquo; home studio space, a&nbsp;smattering of headless <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/beauty/photographer-reveals-princess-diana-hair-plastic-hairspray" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mannequins</a> against the back wall. It&rsquo;s&nbsp;hard to tell, squinting through a small screen, but each is&nbsp;draped in one of the designer&rsquo;s ethereal, <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/women-in-balance-exhibition-ferragamo-museum-florence-wanda-miletti" target="_blank" rel="noopener">artisanal</a> creations.
Pierce&rsquo;s clothing has an <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/beauty/how-to-try-crystal-eyeliner-beauty-trend-euphoria-makeup" target="_blank" rel="noopener">angelic</a>, otherworldly quality, and&nbsp;not just because she works primarily with white fabric. The&nbsp;shape and texture of each item, as it rests on the body of&nbsp;the wearer, is surprising in its dexterity. Some pieces seem&nbsp;almost as if fresh whipped <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/beauty/eye-cream-vs-gel-undereye-products-skincare">cream</a> has been laced and drawn&nbsp;in interlocking shapes around the body. Others are heavily&nbsp;smocked, standing stiffly, though still delicately constructed,&nbsp;like crunchy armor.&nbsp;

Her technique&mdash;binding together strips and squares of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/floral-fabrics-fall-winter-2021-fashion-trend" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fabric</a>, a process she deems &ldquo;quite difficult&rdquo;&mdash;was one born&nbsp;out of a desire to produce clothing without waste. Small&nbsp;pieces of fabric build on one other to create a fully fleshed-out garment. &ldquo;It can just lead to so much exploration in that&nbsp;it&rsquo;s sustainable, but also not just for sustainability&rsquo;s sake; it&nbsp;benefits me as a <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/dior-men-fashion-show-spring-2023-los-angeles-collaboration-erl-photo-look-video" target="_blank" rel="noopener">designer</a>,&rdquo; she notes. Pierce explains that in&nbsp;practice, the fabric may not always rest nicely on the body,&nbsp;but the complexity that comes from the method leads to&nbsp;exploration beyond fashion&rsquo;s standard silhouettes.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I have rooms full of samples at this house...old <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion-week/haute-couture-highlights-spring-summer-2022-collections-schiaparelli-jean-paul-gaultier" target="_blank" rel="noopener">collections</a>&nbsp;I could look at, but I don&rsquo;t want to because I want to see&nbsp;what I can do without having looked at what I&rsquo;ve done in the&nbsp;past,&rdquo; she says, explaining that her innovations of technique&nbsp;often set her imagination running&mdash;instead of producing a&nbsp;single piece, she wants to make 10. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s quite nice when I&nbsp;see something from the first collection, [and notice a] little&nbsp;something similar in the new collection, but it&rsquo;s on a whole&nbsp;other construction. There are similarities, but it might only&nbsp;be recognized by me.&ldquo;

Much of Pierce&rsquo;s work is tied deeply to her <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/travel-living/top-wedding-destinations-2022-international-travel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Irish</a> heritage&nbsp;both in production and in inspiration.&nbsp;Mn&aacute; I Bhl&aacute;th (Women in Bloom), her first collection, drew from the history of the Women&rsquo;s movement in Ireland, including the Magdalene&nbsp;Laundries, secret <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/catholicism-met-costume-institute" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Catholic</a> Church-run institutions in which&nbsp;&ldquo;fallen&rdquo; women were confined and forced into labor; and the&nbsp;2018 repealing of 8th Amendment to the Irish Constitution,&nbsp;which effectively banned women&rsquo;s rights to safe and legal&nbsp;abortions. Pierce explains that for this collection, her use of&nbsp;smocking and embroidery served as a starting place&mdash;&ldquo;The&nbsp;broderie anglaise; that was very much like a christening&nbsp;gown,&rdquo; she says. In 2019, Pierce won Chanel&rsquo;s inaugural&nbsp;M&eacute;tiers d&rsquo;art Prize at Hy&egrave;res Festival for the collection,&nbsp;which also allowed her to collaborate with the French fashion&nbsp;house&rsquo;s ateliers on an extension of floral items, entitled&nbsp;Bl&aacute;thanna Fi&aacute;in (Wildflowers).
In November 2021,&nbsp;Two For Joy&nbsp;arrived. &ldquo;[It] was a much brighter collection, about very happy memories I had as a child,&rdquo; she says. The use of satin, while still sticking to her&nbsp;signature white palette, gave the pieces a &ldquo;<a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/film-tv/2022-golden-globe-award-winnershttps://www.lofficielusa.com/film-tv/everything-we-know-about-conversations-with-friends-tv-show-hulu-sally-rooney-cast-details-trailer-spoilers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">golden</a>, magical&nbsp;tone.&rdquo; In this collection, Pierce dotted pieces with small cotton&nbsp;flowers, layered against both organza and loose against bare&nbsp;skin. The effect is softer and more at ease than her earlier work.&nbsp;

"It's about getting the best thing out there; that's what I'm searching for."

In her exploration of fabrication, specifically tied to Irish&nbsp;craftways, Pierce has seen an opportunity not only to revisit&nbsp;history, but to also protect her heritage and work. &ldquo;The craft&nbsp;is dying out,&rdquo; she explains. &ldquo;I had a project planned near the&nbsp;north, and a lot of the women that I had planned to work&nbsp;with have actually passed away from the pandemic, so I&nbsp;started an initiative to teach young people to Irish lace. It&rsquo;s&nbsp;a very small class, but it&rsquo;s just about keeping it alive...I want&nbsp;younger people to be able to keep carrying it on.
&rdquo;While many designers eventually give in to the gravitational&nbsp;pull of the fashion world, relocating to hubs like <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/celebrity-influencer-fashion-trends-london-fashion-week-fall-winter-2022" target="_blank" rel="noopener">London</a>&nbsp;and <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/celine-fall-winter-2022-collection-hedi-slimane-paris" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Paris,</a> Pierce remains staunchly in <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/film-tv/everything-we-know-about-conversations-with-friends-tv-show-hulu-sally-rooney-cast-details-trailer-spoilers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dublin</a>&mdash;close to the craftspeople she regularly collaborates with. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a bit strategic on my part because it&rsquo;s a bit of a breathing space,&rdquo; she explains. &ldquo;People are emailing me asking, &lsquo;Can I come over and view the collection?&rsquo; I&rsquo;m like, &lsquo;No, you can&rsquo;t actually;&nbsp;you&rsquo;re not getting in,&rsquo; which I think is really good for my&nbsp;work because, with my brand, what comes first is the design.&rdquo;&nbsp;To Pierce, it&rsquo;s the process in which she wants to be enveloped.
Currently, Pierce is in the midst of designing her fourth collection for her namesake brand and juggling the stresses&nbsp;that come with being launched into the global fashion&nbsp;spotlight. This means doing things a bit &ldquo;backwards.&rdquo; In&nbsp;the past, her sources of inspiration, she explains, &ldquo;would be&nbsp;something I&rsquo;m researching in my own spare time; I wouldn&rsquo;t&nbsp;even be thinking like, Oh, collection. It would be something&nbsp;I&rsquo;d be wanting to learn a bit more about.&rdquo; While her first&nbsp;collections were made-to-order and created annually,&nbsp;now Pierce is having to navigate scaling up production of&nbsp;technically tricky, highly detailed pieces.

&ldquo;I used to say that the brand is for the people more so in&nbsp;the art or design world; that&rsquo;s who would appreciate it.&rdquo;&nbsp;But the sculptural, textured designs have begun to attract a&nbsp;wider breadth of customers&mdash;including major retailers like&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/black-owned-everything-nordstrom-nike-partnership-zerina-akers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nordstrom</a>, perhaps not the typical shopping destination for the art crowd. &ldquo;[What] I really was proud of with the Nordstrom order is that it wasn&rsquo;t a watered-down collection,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;What I had shown as part of my final collection was what they bought and what was able to go on the shelves. I was really happy it wasn&rsquo;t like, Oh, we&rsquo;ll just do <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/graphic-tshirt-history-band-merch" target="_blank" rel="noopener">T-shirts</a>.&rdquo; A highlight for Pierce was when she was sent a photo of her piece in the store. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t even know it was on the shop floor.&rdquo;
Now, Pierce is up for the highly coveted <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/lvmh-prize-2022-finalists-erl-knwls-ss-daley-tokyo-james-fashion-design-award" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LVMH prize</a>,&nbsp;something she&rsquo;s always wanted to achieve. &ldquo;Being in the&nbsp;room with LVMH, some of the [other designers] may have&nbsp;been a bit nervous. But in all the photos you can see me&nbsp;smiling because I was like, This is exactly where I want to be.&rdquo;&nbsp;As Pierce continues to explore exactly what her namesake&nbsp;brand will be, no matter the awards, accolades, or stockists,&nbsp;it will always come from the process of perfection. &ldquo;I will&nbsp;just push to try and get it to be the best thing it can be,&rdquo; she&nbsp;says. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not, Oh, is this very time-consuming? or Is this a waste&nbsp;of resources? It&rsquo;s about getting the best thing out there; that&rsquo;s&nbsp;what I&rsquo;m searching for.&rdquo;

LVMH Prize Finalist Róisín Pierce is Fashion's Next Big Thing

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